Experience Integrators

Driving Effectiveness in New Age CX Leadership: Key Roles and Skills

Experience shows that CX leadership roles often lack clarity, hindering their impact. Traditionally focused on post-sales support, CS leaders must now evolve with skills in business acumen, analytics, and change management. Effective CX requires alignment across functions and advanced influencing skills, demanding a shift from cost-center to strategic contributor.

After working extensively with major consumer-facing organizations and consulting on improving Customer Experience (CX) capabilities, I have realized that organizations lack clarity regarding CX leadership roles, required skills, and effectiveness measures. Addressing these gaps is essential to fully harness CX’s potential to enhance the brand’s stature.

Recommended Blogs:

Leading the Evolution of Customer Experience

The Customer Service (CS) leader is tasked with driving the evolution of Customer Experience (CX) within the organization. It is crucial to identify the new skill sets needed for effective role delivery. Traditionally, CS operated as a functional vertical focused on post-sales support. The CS leader was responsible for managing all post-sales processes, including handling customer queries, requests for accessories, upgrades, additional services, and complaints. Often seen as a ‘cost center,’ the CS leader had to find ways to reduce per-unit transaction costs while maintaining efficiency. The core skill required was minimalism—achieving the most with the least resources. Investments in the Service function had to compete with other functions that were seen as revenue generators, making it necessary to work with limited resources. The leader’s role also included selecting and developing the right frontline staff, emphasizing the importance of soft skills, process knowledge, and supervisory skills.

Expanding the Role of Customer Service Leaders

Some organizations have assigned top-line responsibilities to the CS function for upselling and cross-selling during customer interactions to increase the customer’s share of the wallet. This shift has made it necessary for CS leaders to develop business acumen and selling skills for their teams.

As CS roles evolve from a post-sales ‘reactive’ function to a strategic contributor affecting the brand and top line, Customer Experience (CX) leaders must take on a much larger and distinct role within the organizational structure. This change requires new and significant competencies. Without adaptation and development, a CS leader will struggle. Organizations must recognize this need and implement capability enhancement programs to fully realize the potential of CX.

Navigating the Complexity of CX Programs

CX programs are comprehensive change management initiatives that affect every process and system impacting the customer lifecycle. To effectively meet the needs of various customer segments, different verticals within the company must align their efforts. This requires CX leaders to possess strong analytical, communication, negotiation, and influencing skills. Change management programs often face resistance from skeptics and cynics in different functions. Thus, CX leaders must navigate these challenges with tact, political acumen, and mature leadership. They need to stay updated on new developments in the CX field and evaluate relevant practices, tools, and technologies through thorough business case assessments.

Recognizing the significant difference in competencies and skills required for CS and CX leaders is crucial to overcoming the shortcomings in CX capability building. Organizational leadership, HR heads, and CS leaders must address this disparity to enhance CX effectiveness.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top
Call Now Button